“I think he observes a lot better. He observes the game, the flow of the game. And tendencies. He can look at players and their tendencies. And then you can file that away. That last play [in Game 3], I had to laugh. He just pulled everybody up. It was prime misdirection. Al Horford just held … he just vacated the backside. If you simply put everybody there, it’s a dead giveaway for what’s going to happen. He used Philly’s aggressiveness and youth against them. He knew they were going to be aggressive defensively, he knew they were going to overplay, and now you have Horford on the backside. He’s able to look at the game and make adjustments on the fly. He’s a great coach, man.”

“To be able to see the game like that requires a lot of film study. Watching film over and over and over. Studying over and over and over. To then be able to observe things in real time. That can only be done by a person who has that level of commitment to the game. Which I’m sure he does.”

The NBA is a superstars’ league. Rarely, if ever, does a team lacking star power make it even this far in the playoffs. But, as we have found out over the last few years, Stevens is a rare coach. And next season, he should have his stars back healthy, which should worry the other 29 NBA teams.

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